In the May 2, 2005 issue of Business Week, the cover read, "Blogs will change your business. Look past the yakkers, hobbyists and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: catch up ... or catch you later."

Hang on to your coffee cups, I will now attempt to rattle off a myriad of ways in which a blog can potentially benefit your business. Knowing them will help you to focus your goals before beginning a business blog, and to find your voice once you do. Not all of them will necessarily apply to your business, so look for the benefits you desire and use those to help you develop your blog strategy.

I’ve identified seven ways in which a blog can enhance a business and they are as follows:

1. Focus
2. Search Engine Optimization
3. Networking & relationship building
4. Establish expertise, trust and credibility
5. Opportunities for permission marketing and public relations functions
6. Feedback from your peers or customers
7. Allow people to learn “the rest of the story"

1. Focus
A client actually brought up this fantastic point that hadn’t really occurred to me: writing about your business helps you focus.

A quick metaphor illustrates the point …

If you’ve ever given a presentation, you know that the preparation that’s involved is intense. You spend time thinking about what information your audience most wants to hear, write up an outline and sketch out ideas for things to talk about, do a bit of research, narrow things down, and put it all together in a way that is compelling, helpful, and/or entertaining.

The above example is a metaphor for not only the point at hand, but a blog itself (less intense, of course). Beyond the obvious reasons for giving presentations (establishing yourself as an expert, meeting new customers, etc.), consider the added benefit of organizing and preparing all of your ideas: you become focused. The more you write about, speak about and think about your business – the easier it is to communicate and strategize on-goingly.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engines love blogs. This is a huge topic within a huge topic, so I’ll point you to various articles that discuss the nitty gritty if this is an area of particular interest.

ProBlogger - Blogs, Links and SEO

SEO Today – Business Blogs to help Search Engine Optimization

Site Pro News - Why Blogs Have Become the Search Engine Optimization Equalizer

Build a Better Blog – Various articles on SEO & Blogs

3. Networking & Relationship Building
This is the “fun” part of blogging: building relationships.

Once you sit down to write content for your blog, you’ll quickly realize that you’ll probably want and/or need to start reading related blogs. This is a great way to generate ideas and keep abreast of information pertaining to your industry.

You’ll read their blogs, and hopefully many of them will in turn begin to read yours. This is your blog network. The internet is ripe with opportunities to connect with people with whom you share things in common.

Some ways to strengthen your network:

• Provide feedback on other blogs:
  Leave meaningful comments. “Great post!” is nice, but won’t necessarily get you noticed. Adding to the discussion on other blogs is a primary way you’ll invite colleagues to read your blog. (When you leave a comment, you’ll provide a link back to your site for them to follow.)
  
  Continue a discussion on your own blog and leave trackbacks. If you read a blog entry that makes your mind spin with possibilities for writing your own blog entry on the topic – do so. Reference the original blog by linking back to what inspired you, leave a trackback so they know you’re doing so, and people will then be allowed to follow the conversation (leading to your blog!)
   
• Email
  If a blogger has a link on their blog that says, “Email me!” then consider that an invitation to do so. But be cautious. Compliments, constructive feedback or information that you think the blogger might find useful are usually welcomed. “I read your blog and you seem to have all the answers --can you help me (for free)?” is annoying, don’t do it.
   
• IM (Instant Message)
  Like email, if a blogger has provided a link to their instant message information, they are providing another way for you to connect. This one I use with extreme caution as IMs can be incredibly intrusive. An email conversation inviting that person to “meet you” in IM is a safe way to approach this one.
   
• Blogrolling
  Providing links to other sites is a great way to let another blogger know you love them. I’m often asked if it’s “ok” to link to other sites – it is. I haven’t met a blogger yet that doesn’t love it. Remember that links (if they are meaningful) help SEO tremendously. If you find that somebody has linked to you (there are services such as www.technorati.com that allow you to find out), visit their site, see what they’re about! You might then decide to provide a reciprocal link, a friendly gesture indeed.

4. Establish expertise, trust and credibility
Are you an expert in your field? Let the world know. More importantly, let your customers and colleagues know -- what you write can help to establish trust and credibility with both groups, leading to a bounty of opportunities.

For your customers, your ability to communicate your expertise may be a deciding factor in retaining your services or buying your product.

Your colleagues may tap you on the shoulder and invite you to speak at an upcoming conference, join forces on a project or promotional initiative, or to form a mutually-beneficial relationship in sharing knowledge, support and camaraderie.

5. Opportunities for permission marketing and public relations functions
Once you establish a relationship with your readers, it’s perfectly acceptable from time to time to make a sales pitch or communicate something about your specific business. Once your readership trusts you, people will be more open to hearing it as long as you don’t always make your blog all about what you can get from them.

Anything that you might include in a press release or newsletter is most likely appropriate to include on your blog. You might announce a new product or service, introduce new employees or celebrate a promotion, generate excitement about a special offer or event, or even address a crisis situation.

6. Feedback from your peers or customers
With your blog, you’ll be inviting people to get to know you and your business on a more informal basis than traditional marketing channels allow. Consequently, you’ll open yourself up to both praise and criticism (constructive as well as non).

It takes courage to blog, make no mistake about it.

But if you’re brave, if you’re smart, and if you truly listen -- feedback from your customers and peers is just another opportunity for you to improve your business and address those issues head on.

7. Allow people to learn “the rest of the story”
Another “fun” aspect of blogging is allowing people to get to know you more informally. Let your personality shine through, be sincere, and your blogging relationships will flourish. Are you funny? Don’t be afraid to inject humor in your writing, people love a joke. Are you mad about cats? A cat photo now and then is obligatory.

In an age where we’re all connected to computers and gadgets more than we are to one another, a blog brings us back together again. People do business with other people, and personality always counts.

More Alaskan Experts >>